


On The Run

by Rauwrtsch



Category: Bleach
Genre: Hiding, M/M, Mpreg, Running Away, after war, fast progressing pregnancy, possible dub-con (sex while drunk)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-29
Updated: 2014-07-05
Packaged: 2017-12-16 13:42:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 19,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/862681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rauwrtsch/pseuds/Rauwrtsch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ichigo and Grimmjow get together in a drunken one night stand, which leaves Ichigo pregnant. And the pregnancy is going very fast. He's due in only mere hours time and has to go on the run, first to Hueco Mundo, then the other side of the world to make sure that he and his child live. But like it always happens in his life. Things don't always end up going as he plans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Drunk

**Author's Note:**

> I already posted this story completely on Ff.net, but I decided to rework it a little bit before uploading it here. I added a few tiny details, took out mistakes, and put the actual first and second chapter together into one chapter. I am planning to do all the other chapters as fast as possible as well :) 
> 
> Hope you enjoy.
> 
>  
> 
> This story takes place after the winter war, but in my story Ichigo hasn’t lost all of his reiatsu. He can still see everybody, he just doesn’t have the power to fight them anymore.

 

Ichigo gazed around him as he walked the darkened streets of Karakura town. He wasn’t really sure he recognized this particular street but everything seems so different when you’re slightly drunk. Or really _really_ drunk. He couldn’t keep in the soft chuckle that escaped his lips. He was always such a happy drunk. And today had been something to celebrate! Uryuu and Orihime had finally gotten together after years and years of circling each other.

  
And they had spiked his drink! The _Bastards_.

  
But well, there was nothing he could really do about that now so he chuckled again and walked into the alley that made the shortcut to his home. Normally people would tell him not to do that, but he could very easily take care of himself. He may have lost his powers after the war, but he could still easily see all of them and attack the hollows. He was still strong enough to take care of himself and take on anybody that tried to attack him.

He left the alley and walked into the park. His other, probably even more dangerous, shortcut. He smiled as he passed the playground but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a familiar form sitting on the swing with what appeared to be a cup in his hand.

A wide smile touched his lips as he started walking towards the arrancar on the swing.

“Grimmjow.” He slurred softly. Trying to keep himself upright.

Did he mention that he was a horny drunk as well? And that he kind of liked the blue-haired arrancar standing in front of him. It had started as just liking to fight the man, but then it had started turning into something a little more.

Not that he was ever going to tell anybody that… when he was sober, but he was kind of enormously drunk right now.

  
He leaned forward, face only centimeters apart from Grimmjow’s. “You know. You’re kind of sexy like this.”

“Like what shinigami?”

“Like this, without that shit-eating grin on your face you look kind of friendly. I like that.” He chuckled as he pressed their lips together.

“You might not want to do that Shinigami.” The arrancar mumbled as Ichigo pulled back for air. “I’m in my rut right now, which means everything and everyone is sexy to me. I’d do about anyone.”  
Ichigo smirked softly as he pushed their lips together once again. “Then why not me? I’m willing. Very willing if I say so myself.”

The arrancar stared at the teen and then smirked as well. “Okay then. Why not? Show me the way?”

“Gladly.”

  
XXXXXXX

  
About ten minutes later Ichigo pulled the –now gloriously naked- arrancar on top of his own naked body on the bed, chuckling and mumbling things like ‘I can’t believe we’re really doing this. I’m so drunk.” It didn’t even come to his mind that this was so wrong and most likely to get him into some serious trouble. That is if the wrong people found out about it though.

He pulled their lips together once again before turning them around so he was on top now, hovering over Grimmjow’s member before lowering himself onto it without any form of preparation. And it hurt! It hurt so damn much. His face twisted in pain as he let himself adjust to the size inside of him. It took him a few minutes before he finally felt like he could move. So he did, slowly at first, but going faster with time. Moving his hips in just the right way so that it started feeling better and better.

Moans started to leave his lips as Grimmjow started to thrust his hips up, hitting his prostate dead-on. He didn’t even last long after that. Soon after Grimmjow had started moving as well, Ichigo neared the edge and tumbled over it, muscles contracting around the arrancar’s member and milking him dry as he came as well, filling him to the brim. He gasped loudly. Oh god. It made him feel so full. So content.

With a soft sigh he collapsed on top of Grimmjow, drunk smile still playing on his lips as he fell asleep, soon being followed by Grimmjow who was too tired to move even a muscle.

  
XXXX

  
Ichigo’s eyes snapped open as he felt a surge of burning pain go through his stomach. He quickly stared at the clock, sober enough to do so now and saw that it had been only 3 hours since he’d made what was probably one of the biggest mistakes of his life. But somehow he didn’t really regret doing it at all.

He groaned as another wave of pain hit him and he grabbed Grimmjow’s arm, squeezing harshly. “What did you do to me?” He groaned out between his clenched teeth as he could feel his stomach bulging slightly, growing more as seconds went by. It felt like he was burning up inside and preparing to explode. “What did you do to me?” He asked once again. This time with even more panic laced in his voice.

The arrancar’s eyes opened and he stared at him hesitantly, eyes widening when he saw what was happening to the teen lying beside him.

He cursed and grabbed Ichigo’s shoulders. “You are a beta!?”  
  
“A what?”  
  
“A beta.”  
  
“And what the hell might that be?”  
  
“You have a hollow inside of you. Right? Does he act dominant?”  
  
“Of course he does. Don’t all hollows act that way?”  
  
The arrancar shook his head with a deep sigh.  
  
“What did yo-!?”  
  
“You are pregnant. Something that can only really happen to betas as far as I am aware. And you have about 6 hours until labor.”  
  
The teen’s eyes widened and he backed away against the opposite wall. “No! nononono! This can’t be happening. This is some weird nightmare. I just got drunk and this is a result of my wicked imagination! They are going to kill me!”  
  
“I’m sorry Ichigo. If I had known you were a beta I wouldn’t have taken you. God, I probably wouldn’t even have followed you home. But we’ve got to go now. I have to take you to Hueco Mundo. You can’t survive here like this.”  
  
“No. I’m not going there. My friends are going to think I _betrayed_ them!”  
  
“There’s no other way. There aren’t enough spirit particles in the air here. Both you and the child will die.”  
  
“But-“  
  
“No ‘but’s. We’ve got to go as soon as we can. Which is right now! We have no other choice Ichigo. It’s either that, or you die. And I’ve seen hollows die because they were pregnant and not in Hueco Mundo. I can assure you that it is no pleasant death.”  
  
He picked Ichigo up bridal style and opened a garganta, carrying the pregnant teen to his own room in the now abandoned Las Noches.

  
XXXXX

  
A loud groan escaped the teen’s lips as he curled up into a fetal position. By now over 8 hours had gone by and his stomach was now the size of an enormous basketball. He was going to start giving birth in less than an hour and he had no idea what to do.  
  
Or what he had to do with the child after that. Was he just going to leave it with Grimmjow for him to take care of it? In Hueco Munco? Or was he going to drop the child at a foster home?  
There was no way he could keep the child. Soul Society would kill it, and him for having it.  
  
Another groan escaped his lips and he cursed Grimmjow for all he was worth.  
  
“Do you have any idea how much I hate you right now.” He cursed at the arrancar from in between his teeth.  
  
“I already told you I am sorry. This wasn’t what I had planned. Now sit on your hands and knees. It’s almost time.”  
  
“You actually know what’s going to happen? And you didn’t think it was important to tell me this?”  
  
“A little bit. Starrk told me some things about it when I went outside a few hours ago. He has a kids himself you know. With Hallibel and Nell. They’re the rulers of Hueco Mundo right now. The rest is just basic instinct.”  
  
He nodded and suddenly felt this immense pushing pressure on his stomach. The child was trying to push its way out of him and it hurt too goddamn much! It felt like this muscles were in the wrong place and his skin was being ripped apart. Even thought, as far as he could see, no actual ripping of the skin was happening.  
  
The teen could see Grimmjow putting his hands underneath his stomach, telling him to just relax and let the child push itself through the layers of skin. Because that’s the way things went here in Hueco Mundo.  
  
And so that’s what he did, just leaning with his head on the bed, breath coming out in harsh pants until he could finally feel the bundle or reiryoku that was his child fall through his stomach muscles and the pain quickly subsided. Leaving him with nothing but a dull ache.  
  
Grimmjow pulled the child from underneath him and told Ichigo that he could let himself fall back onto the bed now. He gazed at the child with wonder in his eyes, speaking softly as to not startle the already screaming child. “It’s a human girl.” A gentle smile played on his lips as he looked at the little wonder in his arms.  
  
Ichigo stared at him. “Yeah. Well. Congratulations. You’ve got a daughter. Now bring me back to the human world before they notice I’m gone.”  
  
The espada stared at him. The smile on his lips disappearing as a sad looking frown took its place. “I don’t think it’s going to be possible to do things the way you wish them to. Human children can’t survive here in Hueco Mundo. And I bet your other option was to get her to a foster home? No chance. She’s also part shinigami and part hollow. It would only cause trouble and make things actually worse.”  
  
“Then what am I supposed to do? I can’t suddenly come home with a child! There’s no way I could actually explain this, of find an excuse for! She’s half arrancar!”  
  
Grimmjow sighed and laid her in Ichigo’s arms. “She may be half arrancar, but you are her mother. Don’t look at me like that. You gave birth to her and that makes you the mother.” He watched as Ichigo turned his face away. “Just Look at her. She has YOUR hair.”  
  
The teen reluctantly did as he was told, gazing into her soft brown eyes. She looked like a feminine version of himself. He touched her cheek softly, seeing that she got Grimmjow’s light skin tone and western looks, and suddenly he found himself crying. He didn’t want to part with this little girl, this little miracle. This tiny person that was his to take care of.  
  
He gazed up at the father of the little bundle in his arms. “Then what am I supposed to do?” He said softly. “Where can I go so that they won’t find us? They’ll kill her if they know she exists. And what about you? What are you going to do? Do you even LIKE me like that? Do you even want to be a part of her life?”  
  
The arrancar sat down next to Ichigo again. “The only other option I can think of is to hide your reiatsu, color your hair and go to the other side of the world. They don’t know her reiatsu so we’ll just have to tone hers down as to not draw attention to it.” He touched the little girls cheek as well before staring into the teen’s eyes. “And I don’t know. I know I find you attractive, but I don’t know if I love you, or even like you like that. But I’ll come by each week to check up on you and her. I think I DO want to be a part of her life. I just can’t stay there with you. It would be too dangerous. They’d immediately know of my Reiatsu disappeared along with yours. And even if they don’t notice that, they’ll notice if it disappears once a week.”  
  
Ichigo nodded softly, looking down at his daughter again. “Where will you be bringing me?”  
  
“Somewhere in Europe. I went to this small country there some time ago, after the war. We were finally free so we all traveled for a bit. I know somebody there that can help you get your papers. But you’re going to have to think of another name for yourself and color your hair. Otherwise it would be too easy to track you down. And give her a western name. It will make her life easier over there.”  
He stood up and walked to the door. “Think about names already. I’m going to the country to deal with everything over there already so that your papers and apartment will be ready. And I’m going to tell Starrk so that he can come give you some reiatsu blockers and hair paint while I’m gone. Just stay here, and don’t move. There are shinigami in Las Noches. They just haven’t found the rooms yet because this whole complex hides our reiatsu.”  
  
Once again Ichigo nodded and he cradled his daughter a little closer to his chest when Grimmjow opened the door and disappeared from the room, leaving him and his daughter alone.


	2. 6 years later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 6 years have passed since Ichigo's life took a turn to the very different. His life is simple. but at this moment, that's really all he needs, all he wants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because of where they live, they’ll be speaking three languages. English, dutch and Japanese. You’ll find the things they say in English typed in italics, the Japanese in just the normal typo, and the dutch in fat typography.

Before Ichigo knew it, six years had already passed in the blink of an eye. Six years since he’d left his family and his life in Japan behind to come live in Belgium; the ‘capital of Europe’, one of the smallest countries in Europe.. He had his apartment, his job, and even Grimmjow right now. Because, much to his surprise, the man had come to love him. Just like he had come to really love the man. Thought it had taken a few years for that to happen. First it had just been Grimmjow, just coming by weekly to come check up on him and their daughter,(who they ended up naming Katherine but had just started calling ‘Kat’ after a while) but now he would stay for the whole weekend. Sometimes even a little longer though that happened only rarely. 

He smiled as he pulled his daughter on his lap, her long wavy orange hair tied up in a high ponytail that wasn’t quite so neat looking anymore after a busy day at school.

“How was school today?” He asked the little girl on his lap. She was now in her first year of elementary. But she was already used to going to school because she had gone to the kindergarten for four years before that. Something that was actually quite usual to happen in Belgium. 

She was a smart girl, maybe even a little too smart for her age, which resulted in her not having that many friends and being bullied most of the time. But it also meant that she was smart enough not to use what made her different. Not to ‘punish’ the bullies by doing what she called ‘magic tricks’.

“I loved it. I could read in front of the class today.”

“And how was it.”

“The teacher said it was great. I just have to work on my pronunciation a bit more. But she’s proud of me.”

The once orange haired man smiled at his daughter. “Well… Why don’t you go grab one of your books and I’ll call that sweet lady from next door to help you until Daddy comes over. Then we’ll play a little game and then it’s time for bed. Your daddy said that we’re going to take you somewhere special tomorrow.”

“Can I know where?”

“nowp. It’s a surprise. Now go and get that book. Do you have any other homework?”

She shook her head and jumped of his lap, running to her schoolbag and taking out a thin reading book. They both knew dutch, so he could read it as well, but his pronunciation was even worse than hers so he was no big help on that. No help at all actually. 

XXXXXXXXX

When Katherine found out, the next day, where they were going; she was jumping with joy. The zoo! Oh she loved the zoo! She had been begging to go their for months after missing the school trip. 

Grimmjow smiled softly at her when she was jumping around the room while Ichigo was putting some food and drinks in a bag.

“Everybody ready?” he asked softly as he walked to the door and opening it. “Because the bus is in 10 minutes. And the next one isn’t for at least an hour.” 

They both nodded and followed Grimmjow outside of the small but cozy apartment. They didn’t own a car, just bicycles and passes for the bus and train. But that was all they needed to go around in this small country called Belgium. It might sometimes take them a few hours to reach some destinations, but at least it was a lot cheaper than having a car. It’s not like they traveled all that much, so they didn’t really need one either.

And even thought using a garganta would be the easiest manner of transport, it was also the most dangerous one. Using one would make it so much more likely for them to be uncovered and to be brought back for execution.

Ichigo, who now had long black hair, showed his pass to the chauffeur as they got onto the bus to the nearest station where they would take the train to Antwerp. Kat stared at her ‘mother’s” hair. She had asked her mommy once why their hair was so different and he had explained that, while, even thought she got bullied for it, orange-red hair was more commonly accepted with girl than it was with boys, so he preferred to color it.

A little over one hour and a half later they arrived at the zoo. Katherine hugging her father -who also had black hair when in his gigai - in a form of thanks. “Thank you. Daddy. I already love it. Can we go to the panthers first? I like them. They remind me of you!”

The arrancar chuckled. Of course the panthers reminded her of him. She had no idea. He lifted her with a wide smile playing on his lips. “Of course we can go to the panthers first. And then I want to go see the monkeys. I think they are funny.” Well. He didn’t really, but he knew she really liked them as well and today was her day. 

She giggled and kissed Grimmjow on the cheek. “Sure Daddy.” 

He put her back on the ground and grabbed her hand as she grabbed Ichigo’s hand with her other hand pulling them along to all of her favorite animals. This was the best day of her life! She had her mommy and daddy both with her today, and she got to see the panthers. As well as the monkeys and the alpacas. 

But as they walked to the elephants her dad wanted to see so much, the air suddenly changed and she could feel her parents stiffen. 

“Don’t look up.” Ichigo mumbled softly to her before kneeling down with a soft smile. Panic barely hearable in his voice, but still so obviously present. “Please don’t look up okay?”

“Is it the ghosts?”

He nodded and pulled her up in his arms, holding her close as he walked closer to Grimmjow while trying his very best not to panic.

“Let’s go inside to drink something before we go to the elephants.” He whispered to his daughter. “They’ll probably go away if they think we can’t see them. Okay?” 

She nodded but he could see how afraid she actually was. He had told her stories about his past. But he told them as bedtime stories where he still had his old name. Where he still went by the name Of Ichigo Kurosaki and not by the name of Thomas Peeters. And when Grimmjow didn’t go by the name of Jason Williams. She knew that she had to ignore the ghosts because they were real and if they knew that she could see them, they would bother her. They would keep asking her questions about who she was and why she could see them, because not many people could. 

They quickly walked outside of the zoo, back to the overly crowded station right next to it, where they slipped into a small shop to buy some drinks. 

But against Ichigo’s highest hopes the ‘ghosts’ showed up there as well. He looked at Grimmjow with a look of pure desperation in his eyes and they both knew that there was no other way to do this than the way they had been trying to avoid for so long. So they walked back outside the station as quick as they could without looking back. Too hurried to get away to even try doing so. 

Once outside they went into an alley and Ichigo told Katherine to close her eyes. “We’re going to do something so magical it’s secret. But it looks more scary than it is so I want you to keep them closed okay?” 

She nodded and Grimmjow quickly opened a garganta, sending them through and closing it immediately behind himself. Now they could only hope that nobody had seen them.


	3. Ghosts

Rukia sighed deeply as she saw the three people she was ordered to follow, disappear into a garganta. And there weren’t that many people who knew how to make one of those. It seems like they finally found Ichigo: the boy who suddenly disappeared with nothing but a note a little over six years ago. A note that told them that he was just sick of living his life the way he was and that all he wanted to do was get away, as far as he could so that he could finally live a normal life. A note that asked them to leave him alone and not search for him because all he wanted was to be left alone.  
  
But if he wanted to be left alone, then why was he with a man? A man that looked a little too much like Grimmjow for their liking. He may have had black hair, but she’d recognize him anytime, no matter how he looked.  
  
And then there was the fact that the both of them had that little child with them: a child with Ichigo’s once orange hair. A child they treated as if it were their own. She didn’t know what to think about that. The only thing she could think about was that the child looked about five, maybe six years old.  
  
With a deep sigh she turned around and flash stepped back to the others. She was here with her nii-sama, Hitsugaya-taichou, Renji, Sui Feng-taichou and some people of the second squad. What she had to do know was something she’d rather not do. But it was not like she really had any choice. She had to tell them that Ichigo had betrayed them.  
  
Because even if the war was over, the arrancar where still their enemies. And nothing in the whole of the three worlds could change that.  
  
XXXXX

  
That evening Ichigo laid Katherine down in her bed, kissing her gently on the forehead. Today had been a close call. A little too close for comfort actually. It scared the living heartbeat out of him. He couldn’t think about possibly losing her. He hadn’t been able to think about that possibility ever since they left Hueco Mundo.  
  
“Mommy?”  
  
“Yes sweetie.”  
  
“Can you tell me another story about the ghosts? Why do you fear them so much? I want to know.”  
  
He smiled sadly and sat down onto the bed next to her. “Sure, I will tell you again. I will tell you as many times as you want to hear it. It all began when the hero from our stories fell in love with the wrong person. A person the ghosts hated more than anything. And even thought he had saved their lives before, there was no way they could let the hero and the other person love each other-“  
He stopped talking when he noticed that she had fallen asleep about ten minutes later and gave her another kiss on the forehead. “Love you sweetie.” He said softly. “And there are so many things I would love to tell you about. Tales you’ve never heard before. But I can’t. Not yet. But I’ll tell you someday. I’ll tell you how you came to be. My little miracle” He put the covers over her small frame, tucking her in so she was warm and then left the room, not noticing the small hell butterfly that was sitting on top of her closet, recording everything he said before flying off through the wall. Going back to its master as fast as its little wings could carry it.  
  
The once orange haired man walked back into the living room, silently closing the door behind him before he went to sit in the sofa next to his lover. He leaned his head on the other’s shoulder snuggling even closer as Grimmjow wrapped his right arm around him.  
  
“I know today was close Berry.” He said softly, using the nickname Ichigo now no longer hated. It was the only thing he had left from his previous life: that stupid nickname. Grimmjow had one day, a few years ago, explained to Kat –as she asked one of her many questions- that he called Ichigo like that because he would blush so easily. “But we got away in time.”  
  
“But how could they have guessed we were there? You don’t just be in the exact same spot in the whole three worlds because of a coincidence. What do we do when they find us Grimm? Maybe they even already know where we are. And maybe they are just waiting for you to go back to Hueco Mundo to arrest me.” A couple of tears fell down from his eyes. He really couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. And the longer the thought played in his mind, the more scared he got of the future, of what it could possibly bring.  
  
“Would you feel better if I stayed a little longer? I can stay you know. The only reason I go back every Sunday is because of the risk if I stay here too long. But if you think they already know. I would not hesitate to stay here and protect the both of you. If they find us all we need to do is to take off our bracelets and lift the seal on her powers.”  
  
Ichigo nodded and give his lover a soft kiss. “I’d like that. I think I would feel safer. But I’m going to call in sick from work. I just want to be sure we don’t get separated. I know the way they work and that is always the moment they will try to strike.”  
  
Grimmjow nodded and watched as the ex-substitute shinigami called his work, waiting until he ended the call to take his love in his arms again. “We’ll be alright. He mumbled against the other’s hair, kissing the brown-eyed man again gently.  
  
XXXX

  
A few very tense days passed as the shinigami had apparently decided to keep them waiting, to keep them questioning themselves about their possible fate. A few days in which they kept Katherine home, just to be safe.  
  
But maybe they were wrong? Maybe the Shinigami, in the end, had no idea where they were. Maybe they hadn’t seen the garganta? Because it sure was taking them a long time (for them) to barge in and take them into custody.  
  
They weren’t really the kind of people to wait this long. Their plan mostly involved following and waiting, mostly a day, for the best opportunity. The opportunity most of the time being when the victims were distracted or separated.  
  
But even if they hadn’t seen the garganta; it wasn’t like they couldn’t sense one when being so close. They weren’t stupid.  
  
Maybe they really were just waiting for Grimmjow to leave them alone so they could strike them separately.  
  
He decided to maybe try and relax a little bit. It’s not like they could change what happened and when they decided to attack he might as well be as rested as possible. So he crawled in close next to Grimmjow in the sofa after putting on a movie.  
  
The once blue-haired man pulled him close and whispered reassurances in his ear before kissing him gently on the forehead like the ex-shinigami did so many times with their daughter, but just as he did so the sound of flash steps sounded in the room as well as a high-pitched scream coming from Katherine’s room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For people who already read this story on ff.net. I added a little part to this story at the end.  
> In the original chapter the shinigami come in to capture them on the same day as they went to the zoo, but I decided to put a few days between the day at the zoo and the capture.  
> I did this only in a few lines, but I think it makes a great difference.


	4. Mommy, I love you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who were wondering about this. When Ichi got pregnant he was 15. Which means that he has to go to school in Belgium until he was at least 18. So that’s what he did. He went to a class to learn dutch and just did homeschooling until he the next year when he went to school on a learning contract until he graduated as an ‘ober’ for in restaurants (I kinda don’t know if that exists, the learning contract, outside of Belgium. But it means that you go to school half time and the other time you spend working in the Horeca (in his example), learning the ways of the job). Hope this kind of fills in the gap ☺

 

At the sound of his daughters scream, Ichigo’s eyes widened in shock and fear. He turned around, staring at the door of Katherine’s room as it was opened and the little girl was dragged outside by Sui Feng.

“Mommy!”

He looked at Grimmjow desperately before leaping over the back of the couch to where his little girl was. But just as he got close enough to his daughter, Kuchiki Byakuya stepped in front of him, blocking his way to her.

“Kurosaki Ichigo. You are under arrest for high treason. You, the arrancar and the child will be brought back to Soul Society. Your punishment has already been decided. You are to be executed on Sokyoku Hill by the sword of the Soutaichou.”

Well. That brought about the answer to the question as to why it took them so long to get here.

He glared at the man, his irises turning gold; not because he still had the hollow inside of him, but because of the slight trace of reiryoku said hollow had left behind. He growled softly, hearing his daughter call out to him with a ‘mommy! They’re hurting me!’

And that was the last drop. He was going to kill them all. Or at least die trying.

“If you don’t let my daughter go right this instant I swear I will kill you all. I beat you before, I can easily do it again.”

The captain of the sixth division stared at him with a calculated look, seeing that Ichigo was dead fucking serious about this.  He cast a look at the woman holding the little child and nodded reluctantly, signing her to let her go.

Sui Feng did as she was told, watching as the 6 year old ran into Ichigo’s arms with a loud terrified sob.

The ex-shinigami lifted her up and walked back to sofa, sitting down next to Grimmjow, who was trying his best not to show how distressed he actually was, with his daughter on his lap, trying to calm her down with all his might. He stroked her head, kissed her on the front of her head while hugging her close to his chest. All of this while ignoring the shocked –and some disgusted- looks the people around him were casting at him.

He could feel Rukia’s and Renji’s eyes on him as he shushed the crying child, but ignored them as well, even when all of them came to stand in front of the sofa. He was not ready to face them just yet. Not after what has just happened.

“Ichigo.” The small Kuchiki softly mumbled, looking at him with these big sad eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

He glared up at her. “No you’re not. I asked you to let me be. Why couldn’t you just do that!? I didn’t even ask for all that much. Just to be left alone to live my life!”

“Because it wasn’t like you to suddenly disappear!” The redheaded lieutenant of the sixth division butted in, now glaring back at Ichigo. “How the hell were we to believe that you actually wrote the note? “

The ‘mother’ huffed at the redhead before looking at his daughter with the gentlest eyes. “Go sit on your daddy’s lap.” He whispered to her while putting her long orange hair behind her ear. “I’ve got a bunch of big idiots to yell at so cover your ears. I’m going to say some real bad words I never want to hear come out of your mouth. You understand?”

She nodded at him with big eyes and crawled over onto Grimmjow’s lap, who immediately pulled her close and covered her eyes while she obediently put her fingers in her ears. It made Ichigo smile sadly at her before he turned his gaze back to the people he once counted to be his friends.

His eyes hardened but he didn’t stand up, knowing that it would most likely trigger them to arrest the both of them and  bring them back to Soul Society faster. They would see him as a threat. One that was ready to attack most of the people in the room. It wouldn’t even matter to them that he couldn’t actually find them anymore because he could’ve done it years ago.

“Of course it isn’t like me to just suddenly disappear! It wasn’t like I just suddenly said to myself ‘Hey, I’m going to run away now!’ No! I had to fall in love with the wrong person, get drunk at the wrong time, have sex with said person in that drunken night, not knowing that I was a beta and what the risks were that would come with that. It’s not like I knew that all of that was going to happen!”

The eyes of some of the shinigami around him widened comically.

“Oh but I’m not done yet. It would’ve stayed a one-night stand, you know. If it weren’t for the fact that I woke up only several hours later to find out I was fucking pregnant and due in only a few hours. In less than half a day I went from sober and a normal life to pregnant, giving birth and having to run away because of the consequences I knew would come to haunt me when you would find out! I didn’t even look at her you know, when she was just born, I looked away, didn’t want to see her. I was just going to leave her with Grimmjow. But she was human and wouldn’t survive there! And because she’s also a Shinigami and part hollow I couldn’t bring her to a foster home! I would’ve abandoned her without a single thought because of you and your stupid rules. And you know what? I’m glad I didn’t. You’re not worth that. She’s deserved better than what I would’ve done for Soul Society! I would’ve given up my daughter without even as much as one glance at her.”

He shot a quick look at his daughter; seeing that she was still humming to herself with Grimmjow to make sure that she didn’t hear any of this. He didn’t want her to hear any of this just yet.

“Grimmjow is the one who made me look at her, actually forced me look at my daughter. And ever since that day I’ve been trying my hardest to make up for just even the thought of abandoning her just like that because of some stupid rules.” He now turned his glance at the cold, stoic sixth division taichou. “I was turning into you. I was ready to give up family for the rules. But it didn’t take me as long as it took you to see just how wrong that was! I didn’t wait until my daughter was on the verge of death before I saw that I was making one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”

With a huff he looked at the ground, biting on his cheeks as he fought back the angry tears that were oh so willing to start streaming down his face like little drops of rain on a window.  He took a deep breath, calming himself down before looking them in the eyes again.

“We’ll come willingly, but I have one request. Only one. I wish for the possibility for us to defend ourselves as our lasts words without being interrupted. I want to tell them what happened, all of them. And because I just KNOW the was soul society works, I KNOW we are going to die anyway. I know not to hope for mercy because you find yourselves above that, but you are going to spare her, and Ukitake-taichou will be the one to take care of her. Because I know him and I know that he probably didn’t agree with this when you decided to have our trial without us being present. She will be under his care and she will know everything. Nothing will be hidden from her. She will know why her parents had to die. She will know her parents had to die because they fell in love.”

He looked at Grimmjow, tears forming in his eyes as the man met his determent look and nodded. They would easily give their lives for their daughter. There was no way they wouldn’t. She mattered too much to them. And maybe it was the only way he could make up to her the fact that he would’ve so easily given up hers to save his all those years ago.

XXXXX

Soon after his freak-out they pulled them up forcefully and dragged them along to a senkaimon, separating Ichigo and Grimmjow, just to make sure they couldn’t plan an escape.

Like they were even going to try doing so. It would only cost them more.

Ichigo gazed softly at his daughter as she walked next to him. He was holding her hand tightly, knowing that this was probably the last time he could. A fact he wasn’t really ready to acknowledge just yet.  

With a deep sigh he lifted his head and cast a look at Grimmjow who was walking in front of them. He hated the fact that they weren’t allowed to walk together.

Byakuya was walking in front, Renji was walking with Grimmjow,  Toushirou was walking in between the two lovers, rukia was walking next to him and Kat, and Sui Feng closed the line with a hawk eye, watching their every move.

“Mommy?”

The ex-shinigami looked at his daughter again as she spoke to him in the Dutch language. She was a smart girl, she understood perfectly well that the shinigami would understand not a single word of it.

“Yes sweety?”

“Why did they call you Ichigo? Like the hero in my bedtime stories? I don’t understand why they would call you that.”

He sighed softly with a gentle smile on his face as he picked her up. “Because that’s my real name. I am Ichigo Kurosaki, not Thomas Peeters, I took that name to hide from the ghosts.”

Her eyes widened and he could see that she didn’t really understand, but was trying her best to do so. “Then you are the hero?”  A nod. “And daddy? Is he that man the hero fell in love with?” He nodded again and held her a little closer. No time to explain things like now. At least not in detail.

“You know, sweety.” He looked her in the eyes, putting some of her hairs that were astray behind her ear. “There is a part of the story I never told you. I always end my story with that the hero and the person he loved ran away and lived happily ever after right? Well. There was something else that I didn’t tell you. We did run away, but not just because we were in love. Your daddy didn’t even love me like that back then and the ghosts didn’t know about my feelings for him as well. But some things happened. And then suddenly you were there. We didn’t adopt you like we always told you. I actually am your mommy. I gave birth to you. But except for the fact that I am a boy, that’s not the only different thing. I didn’t have you in my tummy for 9 months. I had you in my tummy for only 9 hours.”

“Because of Daddy? Because who he is?”

He nodded and kissed her forehead gently. “We had to run away because we knew that if the ghosts found out about you, and about what happened, then they would kill all three of us.” He decided to leave out the facts about what he had wanted to do with her first. He just couldn’t tell her that. But she’ll find out someday anyway, Long after he and Grimmjow were gone, because Starrk knows all about that and he will come to search for them if he notices that one of his arrancar didn’t come back home.

He put her back onto the ground, patting your head. “But now they found us anyway. And because you are already a little girl, an innocent little girl with shinigami powers, they can’t hurt you. Because you did nothing wrong. You never did anything that went against their rules.”

A moment of thoughtful silence followed before Katherine pushed herself as close to her ‘mommy’ as possible.

“I love you mommy.” She whispered so silently he could barely hear it. She wasn’t dumb. She could easily understand what that meant. They may not kill her, but they were going to kill her mommy and daddy. Because, in their eyes, they did something wrong.  

A soft sob escaped her mouth as she thought about it. She didn’t want to lose her mommy and daddy! It wasn’t fair! They were only in love, like the princesses and princes from her fairy tails. Why couldn’t they have happy endings like that?

“Kat?”

She looked up at her mom with teary eyes.

“Don’t cry sweety. You’ll be fine. This man with long white hair will take care of you. He’s a real nice man. You probably remember him from my stories. I told you about him.”

She nodded. “The sick man?”

“Yes: the sick man. He’ll take care of you. But go to your daddy now. Go spend some time with him.” He didn’t mention that it was going to be the last of time they could spend together. He knew that she knew and he wasn’t going to remember her of it as she quickly ran towards Grimmjow, tugging at his arm.

“Daddy?”

The arrancar looked down at his daughter with his well-known grin plastered on his lips. But there was something different about it. All of them could see it. It didn’t look as sadistic, as ‘evil’ as before. And to Ichigo, who was so used to that grin right now, after years of being together, it looked so sad. Like Grimmjow’s world was on the verge of ending.

But then maybe it was. Their world was about to end.

“Yes my little carrot?”

She blushed at the nickname. “I’m not a carrot daddy!” she squealed softly before lifting her arms in the ‘pick-me-up-way.’  It would forever be the cutest thing to see her do that.

And so Grimmjow did as his little girl asked of him, picking her up and letting her arms wrap around his neck in a tight embrace. “I love you daddy.” She mumbled, right next to his ear, and it sounded so sad, and even a little scared, that it broke his heart. The grin on his face got replaced by an even more sad look as he held her close. “I love you too pumpkin.”

She laughed sadly, trying her very best to stay strong, but failing to do so. “Daddy. Really! Stop nicknaming me everything that is orange!” Normally she’d poke him for it, and tell him to stop that because she didn’t like that. But now all she could think was that she would probably never hear her daddy call her something orange and it finally made her cry and sob until she was out of breath.

Ichigo bit his lip as he saw that and tried his best to stay next to Rukia in the line to their death. But it hurt to see his little baby girl cry without being able to do something about it. He wanted to walk over there and kiss her on the forehead like he always does when she is in pain, or tired.

Rukia cast him a  considering look before sighing deeply and pushing him forward. “Just go to them.” She mumbled, receiving a glare from both Sui Feng and Toushirou. But she glared back at them. “Just let them spend their goddamn last minutes together will you? I can’t believe we’re really doing this! He saved our lives! More than once!”

She yelled out the last part just as Ichigo took over the sobbing child from his lover. And Renji’s gaze that had been turned their way, now turned towards the smaller Kuchiki with a look of approval in his eyes. He agreed with what she just yelled whole-heartedly. But there was nothing they could do. The soutaichou had given his orders and if they were to refuse them they would be counted as traitors as well. And that would help nobody.

Well, there was something he COULD do. So he walked towards his taichou, leaving the little family alone with each other. He dared to cast a look at the man, seeing in the bitter look in his eyes that he wasn’t really comfortable with this as well.

Maybe his taichou wasn’t as stoic as he showed most of the time. Because after all, he knew what it was to lose the love of your life. To have people judge you for whom you loved.

 


	5. Monster VS Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When it's time for the execution, it's Katherine who comes forward as the one with eye for detail.   
> or  
> The soutaichous logic gets owned by a six year old's.

As soon as they walked out of the senkaimon they were being pulled away from each other as fast as possible by some of the shinigami from the secret-mobile corps. Katherine was brought to Ukitake-taichou as requested – even thought they clearly didn’t really want to do such a thing- , the man sending Ichigo a questioning look as he held the still sobbing child close to him as both Grimmjow and Ichigo were immediately brought to sokyoko hill where they were bound and prepared to be executed.

Ichigo could see all the Shinigami, the people he once counted to his allies and friends, looking at him. Some of them with looks of disbelief or pain in their eyes, others with looks of disgust and hatred for what he’d done.

But he didn’t give a crap about what those people thought about him now. He’d been happy for 6 years. Six years of not being surrounded by constant death and pain, six years of being seen as the boy he actually still only was, instead of the ‘ryoka boy turned savior’. .

The only thing he did care about was his daughter, who was still crying loudly, trying to get to them right now, but being held back by Ukitake en Shunsui; both males with confused and questioning looks on their faces. Why would Ichigo ask them –you couldn’t ask Ukitake without asking Shunsui- to take care of his most precious daughter. Was he just going to go down with a fight? Surely that wasn’t the way he was planning to go. But to Ichigo there was not a single doubt to it. He would give his life for his daughter’s without a single thought.

The Soutaichou walked out of the mass, going to stand in front of the two, now adult, males.

“You have any last words?” He asked sternly. Not a single emotion being displayed in his voice or his eyes. Not a single emotion on his face or stance.

“Yes. I think that people should know what happened.” The youngest male answered with a well directed glare. “People should know that I never betrayed them. I only fell in love with the wrong person, got drunk on the wrong night, and ended up with a child that you count as wrong, but is nothing different than me and hasn’t done anything wrong. She’s the best thing that happened to me and I would do it all over again. Even if that meant having to stand up here and watch her cry because she _knows_ what is going to happen next. Because even now I can already tell all of you that she will be a smart and beautiful girl who knows what’ll be the right thing to do, even if it hurts her; who will know when she’s made a mistake and what’s wrong to do.”

He now looked around the crowd and told them what had happened. This time not leaving out the part of what had happened just after Katherine was born. He turned his eyes towards her when he told them, looking at her with an apologetic and pained look in his eyes. But she looked back at him with determination and love, a look that told him that that didn’t matter to her because he hadn’t done it in the end. He had loved her with all his might, with all his heart, and she knew it.

As he ended his story, his explanation, his defense; he looked at the floor knowing that in the end it didn’t make any difference that all he did was fall in love.

They were going to kill them anyway.

The soutaichou now turned towards de arrancar, hating that he had to ask him for his lasts words as well because he came willingly. It was a policy he couldn’t dare to ignore.

Grimmjow glared at the man and nodded. “Of course I’ve got something to say as well. But first, or actually; more importantly; I’ve got a question for you. When was the last time any arrancar attacked either Soul Society or the living world. Or even just a shinigami? When was the last time an arrancar threatened any of you?”

It stayed dead- silent. Everybody knew the answer to that. The last time anybody had actually seen one of the arrancar was during the last battle of the war. Since then there had been no sign of arrancar attacking somewhere. They had been spotted in the living world and the shinigami had kept them under surveillance when they were, ready to attack, but the arrancar had just gone and buy food and drinks before going back to Hueco Mundo. It was like they just went on vacation and then went back home.

Grimmjow chuckled dryly. “You all know don’t you. We never attacked any of you since the winter war. We only defended ourselves when you attacked us, and even then we never killed any of you. Why? Because when Aizen created us, he made us different from all the other hollows. We are part shinigami. We do have feelings and hearts, our negative ones are just stronger. But we all made a deal amongst ourselves when you captured Aizen. Hallibell and her two mates became the new rulers of Hueco Mundo, punishing every arrancar that dared attack. We were forbidden to come to Soul Society and we were only allowed into the living world to go buy coffee, drinks and food, or to go travel. You no longer have a reason to view us as your enemies because we no longer ARE your enemies.”

He glared at the soutaichou who had now started showing some emotion on his face. The emotions of hatred and disgust. He knew that to the old man it made no difference that Grimmjow was in fact part shinigami. Where with the visard the shingami ruled the body while the hollow was dormant, with them it was like hollow and shinigami had merged and had become one single being.

But as he could easily guess; the old man ignored is statement and just went on.

“As you have now spoken your last words we will go through with the execution.” The head-captain said, pointing his sword towards them, ready to realease his shikai with Taimatsu. (= _This ability is able to create a great inferno with the simple wave of Ryūjin Jakka. The fire generated by the attack entirely consumes whatever is caught within it until nothing remains but ashes. [119] The flames created by Ryūjin Jakka can be controlled with great precision by Yamamoto to attack only the targets he chooses and he also has power over the intensity of the flames; source: Bleach Wikia)_

Ichigo cast one last look at his daughter and lover before closing his eyes and looking at the floor. He was as ready as he could get for this.

But suddenly he wondered about Yuzu and Karin, and his old man. Would they ever know what happened? Probably not. They’d probably never know. He did miss them.

He sighed deeply. Maybe Ukitake would go to them to introduce Katherine to them and explain some things. He could only hope so as he stood there waiting for the blazing fire to hit and disintegrate him.

“Ryūjin Jakka.Taimatsu.”

…

But before Yamamoto-soutaichou could completely let loose the attack Katherine broke free of Ukitake’s grip and grabbed the old man’s arm while sobbing.

“No! You can’t kill them!” She sobbed holding onto his arm tightly. “After all that mommy has done for you! You can’t kill him. You can’t kill the hero of a story! Stories always have happy endings!”

“What do you know. Child.” He said stoically, trying to rid her off his arm.

“Everything! Mommy told me all about that monster that was once a ghost as well. But the monster wanted to be king so he betrayed all of you and manipulated other monsters like what daddy used to be into killing you. But I thought they were just bedtime stories! I bet all mommies bedtime stories were actually true! And that means he saved you lots of times!”

He scoffed. “Used to be? Your daddy is still that monster and he always will be!”

“But mommy told me that monsters have holes in their chests! That’s the way you can know they are monsters. But when we were walking through that dark tunnel daddy was a ghost! He didn’t have a hole in his body! And he didn’t have that mask thing mommy told me about either! So he isn’t a monster! And monsters aren’t funny like daddy is!”

XXXXX

 


	6. Holowless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for some research and creepy smiles.

Ichigo’s face lifted so fast his neck almost and he gazed at Grimmjow’s stomach with wide, surprised eyes; as did all the other people. Even Grimmjow stared down at his stomach with shock clearly written on his face.

“Well Fuck.” The arrancar mumbled as Ichigo now looked at his face and noticed that the mask was indeed gone. He’d gotten so used to seeing Grimmjow in a gigai that he hadn’t even noticed the differences. And before you ask. Yes they’ve had sex, but never in soul form because that could get Ichigo pregnant again, so the last time he saw Grimmjow with his mask and hole was 6 years ago, when he dropped them off in their new little home.

“ohhh… What a lovely specimen.” He could hear the taichou of the twelfth division shout out in that creepy voice of his after a few seconds of intense silence.  “I would like to experiment on that.”

The soutaichou lowered his arm with a deep sigh. That was indeed something they would need to investigate. Because it could just be that the arrancar were changing their appearance, not that this one just changed ‘species’. “Get Urahara. He’ll probably be able to say what has happened to his hollow marks. Put them in the Senzaikyu!”

Ichigo watched as shinigami from the secret mobile corps neared him and started dragging him along over the long bridge into the enormous white tower where they had once kept Rukia before her execution.

Well. At least they got to live a little longer thanks to his little girl. Talking about said little girl, she ran towards him, hugging his leg and preventing him from walking forwards.

He looked at the man who was holding him with a soft questioning and even begging look, waiting until the man glared and nodded at him before he knelt down and hugged his daughter.

“Mommy Can I go with you?”

He shook his head and patted her head, once again not caring at the looks people were giving him. “You have to  go with Ukitake-taichou. The cell is no place for sweet little princesses like you. Be nice to him okay? And don’t be scared of the big bearded man with his pink yukata either. He’s Ukitake’s best friend.”

She giggled softly. “I think they are in love.” She whispered softly to him, like it was a secret between only the two of them.

“You know what. I think you could be right about that one. Why don’t you try to find out and tell me when you come to visit me?  He hugged her tightly once again, giving her a soft kiss on the cheek. “You were brave today.” He said gently to her. “Thank you. You make me so proud to be your mommy.”

He smiled softly as his daughter blushed before he let go and stood up. “I have to go now princess.” He mumbled as he pet her head. “I’ll see you soon okay. Don’t be scared.”

She nodded and let go of her mommy, watching as he was locked inside the white tower together with her daddy before turning and running back to the man with the long white hair.

She gazed at him as they started walking away from the enormous hill.

XXXXXX

Grimmjow gazed at his lover with a slightly panicked look in his eyes when Urahara entered the cell. The man had a grin on his face that was wider than his own used to be and it creeped him the fuck out.

“Was I that creepy when I grinned?” He asked the mother of his child, who nodded at him and made him wince. “sorry about that then.” He mumbled in embarasment.

“Well Well. Look what the cat brought home.” The man with the hat said, grin still very much in place on his lips as he put the fan in front of him. “Long time no see Ichigo. But if I’m not wrong I’m not here for you. I’m here for the cat.” 

He turned back to Grimmjow. “So. I’ve heard your hollow hole and mask have disappeared. Any idea when that happened?”

The bluehaired man shook his head; not liking the grin the other man was showing. It was creepy as hell! “I have no idea. And I’m surprised neither Starrk or Hallibell said anything about it.’

“Okay then. Well, the when isn’t that important, so let’s find out the why.” He said gleefully as he took this weird looking device out of his robe. “First the reiatsucheck.”

He put the device in Grimmjow’s reiatsu, having to put it really close to his face, scanning him and then waiting a few seconds for the results to come out.

“Hmm.. Interesting!” He squealed out in delight. “This is really interesting!”

“What is!?”

The man grinned at them, once again fanning his face.  “Grimmjow is no longer part hollow. There’s not a single trace of hollow reiatsu left.” He said mysteriously, voice dark and soft. “He’s a full shinigami now. He somehow got rid of the hollow part and it must be gone for quite a while already, otherwise there would still be traces left.”

The two lovers stared at each other with wide eyes full of surprise, or maybe shock was a more appropriate way of describing it.

“Okay. But **how** the hell did that happen?”

Urahara smirked again and showed the paper, knowing very well that neither of them had any idea what it said. What made him an arrancar was the fact that his negative primary emotion was way stronger than any positive emotion he had. But I’m guessing that when he fell in love with you… and you had your daughter, that love became the primary emotion, and thus it eliminated the hollow inside him.”

Ichigo blushed softly at that. “Actually. It was the other way around.” He mumbled softly.

“huh?”

“We had Katherine first and then he fell in love with me.”

“Of course it was like that.” The man mumbled after a second of thought. “You’re always one to go against the normal ways of doing things.” He chuckled dryly. “Well. I have to go back to the soutaichou and the council. They’ll probably want to know the results. But I’m guessing that this takes you of the death row because they can’t punish you for being with a Shinigami. It’s what they were hoping to happen anyway, before you disappeared.”

“I hope so.” Ichigo mumbled back staring at both his lover and the shopkeeper. “But I’m scared to start hoping about freedom right now. Who knows. They could use us to set an example for other’s and kill us anyway. We all know how thickheaded the soutaichou is when it comes to his decisions.”

Grimmjow nodded and walked over to his lover for the first time since they were put in the cell and hugged him. “He’s right.” He said to the shopkeeper. “We both know the way the handle things like this. The chance that they’d ignore the information you give them is just bigger than the chance that they would take it into account and let us go free.”

“I’ll try to persuade them to the positive side.” The blond man said smiling. “And we all know how persuasive I can be. Right?”

 

 

 


	7. Family

When Urahara entered the cell the next time, Ichigo almost lost it completely. His nerves had been killing him since the day they were put in here and the whole waiting was just making it a whole lot worse.

“And?”

“Well. They’re discussing it. I did all I could. Now it’s all up to the central, the taichou and of course the most stubborn of them all; the soutaichou.”

The smaller male nodded and leaned back against Grimmjow, releasing a harsh ragged breath. He was scared now. He wasn’t before all of this. He had been prepared then, knowing that there was not a single chance in the world they were going to survive, but now?

They did have a chance  -a small one, but one anyway- now even thought he had no idea where they were standing in all this. Would the soutaichou just let them go free? Or would he still kill them? Or maybe they were going to be left alive but they are still going to be punished for what he did when Grimmjow was still an arrancar? He had no clue, but he was hoping for the first, or the last if there really was no other option.

 As long as they didn’t let him live without Katherine he was going to be fine. Because if they were to take her away from him, he was going to make it so that they had no other choice but to kill him. He was NOT going to live a life without her.

Another sigh escaped his lips as he stared at Urahara while the man left the cell again after telling them that he’d be back as soon as possible.

“You alright?” A soft voice whispered in his ear.

“I don’t know; but, I was prepared to die before we were thrown in here you know? I knew that the possibility that they’d let us go was so slim it barely existed. But now, now they’ve given us this small glimmer of hope and it’s scaring the living hell out of me. I don’t want to hope for a future in vain.”

The once blue haired man hugged him tighter. He knew that feeling. But ever since all of this started six years ago he’d always been the stronger one. He’d been the one to hold Ichigo when he was crying because he missed his family or when he had been crying because he couldn’t handle taking care of Katherine alone with all the schoolwork and his job. It had been him who’d gone to the neighbor lady asking her if she would like to babysit Katherine because he was out of town for most of the time and ‘Thomas’, his lover was still in school and had a job as well. Of course she had happily agreed and it had made their lives a little easier. Thank god for that.

He kissed his lover on top of his head and waited for the other to drift off before he did the same himself.

It was late already, the moon high in the sky, once in a while hiding behind a thick cloud. And on the other side of the seireitei, in the council room of the central 46 there was a meeting, still going on after hours and hours of discussion. If Ichigo could’ve been there right now he would’ve been surprised to see all the people who were actually on his side with all of this.

And how little people were against him, who wanted to see him executed. Who wanted to see him punished for what he did.

“We have no reason to execute them! The only reason we even had fell away when we found out that Grimmjow has been a shinigami for at least 3 years, probably longer!” Renji yelled at Sui Feng who had just told them all that she wanted to see not only Grimmjow and Ichigo executed, but the little kid as well. Or as she called Katherine, The little Demon spawn.

The second division taichou glared at the redhead and the group behind him. She couldn’t believe that all these people were willing to overlook the fact that Grimmjow was still an arrancar when the child was ‘made’. That the child had some hollow inside of her, but not in the way Ichigo had. She was partly hollow, the hollow wasn’t a completely different entity like with the visored, not something you could control!

But the discussion was nowhere near done, and when the sun started rising the next morning, the soutaichou had sent them all home for a break ‘to clear their minds’.

XXXX

More days passed and the lack of reiatsu and people around him was wearing the couple down; Ichigo more than Grimmjow because the latter was rather used to being alone. As long as he had Ichigo with him he was just fine.

But Ichigo wasn’t. He leaned heavily against the other, his reiatsu weak as the walls and the necklace sucked it out of him and he still didn’t know how to control it. The bastards had changed their method of imprisonment from a more passive method, to the active method of almost literally sucking the life out of them!

He stared at the ceiling. He just wished that they would allow Ukitate-taichou to bring her along. He’d been there once, telling him that they’d denied him to bring her along. He was tired as hell and he missed his little girl. He missed her so much.

Suddenly he could feel some people staring at him, and thought it tended to happen quite a lot when people he didn’t know came by to see if the rumors were true, this felt different, somehow more familiar.

“Nii-san.” He could hear the voice of a young woman and he stared at the entrance of the cell in shock.

It was his family and friends. His idiotic father, his sisters, Inoue, Chad, even Uryuu and Tatsuki were there.

And he would stand up and run to them to hug them if it weren’t for the fact that he was feeling so weak.

“Hey.” He said softly, guilt so very clear in his voice. He’d left these people behind without a single goodbye, without a single warning, and yet they were here to see him.

“Nii-sama we missed you.”

Grimmjow could see that she didn’t dare to come closer so he stood up softly, using all of his power to do so as well, and he went to sit at the other side of the room, moving his hand to them in a way that showed them that they could approach his lover. Not that he would’ve done anything were they to just come near Ichigo. He was just his lover. It’s not like he OWNED the man.

And almost immediately after his sign they stepped into the cell, going to the once orange haired man to hug him tightly.

“I missed you too Yuzu, Karin.” He chuckled softly at the pout his dad showed him. “Yes you too you goat face.”

They let go of him and he nodded towards his friends, showing them with just that nod that he missed them as well, thought Inoue still came to hug him.

“So I’ve heard I have a beautiful granddaughter.” Isshin said as he glanced at Grimmjow who was still sitting a short distance away.

“Yeah.” Ichigo blushed softly, gazing at Grimmjow as well with a gentle loving look in his eyes. “Would you guys mind if the father of that ‘beautiful granddaughter’ came to sit with us. He’s right over there you know and he ain’t as bad as you think he is.” 

XXXXXX


	8. Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so sorry it's taken me this long to continue this story (tho it can also be found, already completed on ff.net under the same title by me (with same author name) But i was so busy for school (which i failed anyway) and i had so much on my mind that fanfiction (or the writing of it) couldn't even come to mind. 
> 
> https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8434867/1/On-the-Run

They all stared at the ex-arrancar who was still sitting on the other side of the room with wide eyes. Isshin’s eyes curious while the other’s eyes varied from disbelief to even disgust with Uryuu. But that was to be expected from the quincy.

“You slept with him?” Uryuu asked him, staring straight into the depths of his soul. Well, he was still in his human body, thought it was changed like it happened with Uryuu himself back when he came to rescue Rukia.

“Yes. I was drunk okay? I had hidden feelings and I was drunk of my ass because of your party. Somebody spiked my drink even thought I was very clear about not wanting to drink any alcohol.” He glared daggers at the culprit, the meanwhile young man who was responsible for spiking his drinks and asking questions about the consequences now.

“My party? You mean that party from when Inoue and I got together?”

Ichigo nodded solemnly but didn’t add anything more to the conversation. He just waited for somebody to tell him Grimmjow could come sit next to him; where he needed him the most right now.

And the one to do so was the one from whom he’d expected it in the least. It was Chad who stood up and picked up the other man, having seen that he was apparently feeling pretty week, before setting him down next to Ichigo.

Ichigo immediately crawled back onto the other’s lap, feeling a little warmer. “I see that you are married now btw.” He said smiling. “With each other I hope?”

“Of course with each other you idiot.” Karin scowled at him. She was obviously still pretty mad about him leaving so suddenly. So he stretched out his arms and pulled her into a tight hug. “Look. I’m sorry I left so suddenly okay? It’s just. Unexpected things happened and I had no other choice but to leave. It wasn’t only my life on the line anymore.”

He let go of her when she nodded, and she pulled back sitting back in front of him with the rest.

“Do tell us how my beautiful granddaughter came to be.” Isshin stated in that overly happy voice of his, but thank god that it was only his voice. Ichigo was not really in the mood for dodging those ‘loving kicks’ of his father.

He looked at Grimmjow; not really feeling like explaining everything that had happened and the man got the hint, so Grimmjow started telling what had happened, giving Ichigo a few moments to recollect some of his strength.

But it didn’t seem to really help and before Grimmjow could even come to the part where they were nearly executed, he threw up the little amount of food he had in his stomach as a wave of dizziness washed over him. He groaned and leaned back against Grimmjow’s chest, ignoring the surprised looks they were all casting his way. Or more like not noticing it because he felt like he just got run over by a truck.

“Nii-san. Are you alright?” The soft worried voice of his blond little sister sounded throught the fog just  as another wave of dizziness made him bent over once again.

He felt Grimmjow pull his hair back, in case he threw up again. The orange was starting to show again after such a long time without repainting his hair. And the same was happening with Grimmjow’s hair.

The younger man didn’t reply, just sat there, retching and choking as wave after wave of dizziness hit him until it suddenly stopped and he could sit up again, panting, with no clue as to what had just happened.

“I’m fine again. Sorry about that. I guess it’s that weird food they give us and the fact that we still have these reiatsu sucking things around our necks.”

Uryuu pondered that for a second. “I don’t think that that collar is meant for long time imprisonment. I’ll go and get Unohana-taichou to check up on you two. I wouldn’t put it past the shinigami to just let you die in here to save them the trouble of going through the paperwork for another execution.” And with that he was gone, rushing out of the cell towards the fourth division. (because for all that uryuu liked acting that he didn’t really care, or was disgusted, he couldn’t really help but care anyway)

It only took him about ten minutes until he arrived back with both Unohana-taichou and her lieutenant; Isane. But by then Ichigo had already collapsed. His unconscious form still laying against Grimmjow’s chest with all the others around him fussing about him, trying to get him to wake up to no avail.

The captain from the fourth division immediately sat down next to the pair, telling the others to take a step back and let her do her work. She hovered her hands over the substitute shinigami’s form, sending a reiatsu into his body, trying to read his condition.

“Is he alright?” Came Grimmjow’s weak -but obviously worried- voice.

But she didn’t reply, just kept going over every part of his body. His head, arms, chest and so on. But when she reached his lower abdomen she gasped softly, a gentle smile appearing on her lips.  Something that was probably not the best choice of action at the moment.

“What? What’s wrong with him? Why are you smiling!?” Grimmjow’s voice sounded a little more panicky now as he held Ichigo even closer.

“Actually. I think you should be transferred to the fourth division. Both for reiatsu depletion, which is life threatening. But there seems to be a very special reason why he’s depleting faster than you are even thought you’ve both been in here for about the same amount of time.”

“What’s. Wrong. With. him…” Grimmjow did his best not to growl protectively as she just didn’t seem to be giving him the answer he wanted, needed. And he barely managed to do so, just glaring at her with a scowl he seemed to have taken over from his younger lover.

“Our dear Kurosaki-san seems to be about 4 and a half weeks pregnant.”

….

To say this shocked about everybody in the room was a big understatement.

“What do you mean? 4 and a half weeks? Pregnancies only last 9 hours! That’s how long he carried Katherine before he gave birth to her!”

“Well. I guess he did only carry her for 9 hours, but that’s because he underwent a hollow-like pregnancy. They only last 9 hours or less depending on the kind of hollow because it’s essential for the survival of both mother and child. But it seems that this child was conceived when you had already turned into a shinigami, thus making this pregnancy a shinigami-like one.”

“And how long do they last?” The ex-arrancar asked, patting his lovers head. He did kind of love the news, he just wished they could’ve found out in a different way. Not while being in a cell, in what was apparently a life threatening situation for not only them, but this little life inside of his lover as well.

“20 weeks. But come we’ve got to go to the fourth now. Please let go of Kurosaki-kun so Isane-fukutaichou can already go ahead and bring him to the fourth. And I’m also sorry but I will have to cuff you. I know you won’t run away but it’s the rules and otherwise they certainly won’t allow me to take you outside.”

Grimmjow nodded and let go of the younger man hesitantly, waiting until Isane took him bridal style before he pushed himself up as well, wobbling on his feet. He could feel the captain’s worried look hovering over him as she cuffed him and they all started walking outside; Ichigo’s family and friends following them outside.


	9. Spirit centers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. So while reading some fanfics I came across this fact: The difference between spiritual pressure and spiritual energy is simple: Reiryoku is the amount of energy a being has stored within their body or soul, whereas Reiatsu is the pressure that a person’s Reiryoku exerts.
> 
> I’m going to try to use those terms correctly from here on!
> 
> (original note from way back)
> 
> XXX

 

As soon as they stepped outside they could see Isane still standing there, held back by the guards telling them that ‘the prisoners’ were not allowed to leave their cell. And of course this didn’t fall into a good nature with Unohana-taichou who immediately put her scolding smile on her face. 

“Might I remind you that in cases of health I have the highest authority. But if you want I can make you responsible for the death of 2 inmates due to neglect.”

The guards’ faces suddenly lost all their color, leaving only the pale white that came with the blood draining fear only Unohana-taichou could put in you. “We have no responsibilities over things like that.”

“Yes well. Because you decided to keep them in the temporary cell one of them is on the verge of dying. Which not only risks his life, but that of the child he is carrying as well. Now please remove the collars from the both of them so I can take them to the fourth division.”

Grimmjow could see the dilemma on their faces. Face Unohana’s wrath, or face the wrath of the second division taichou. In the end they decided that Unohana was way scarier and that she could even deny healing them because of this. (Not that she would do that, but she could) So they took off the collars and watched as Isane ran off with Ichigo while Unohana gave some first aid to Grimmjow so he could at least walk properly again.

But even with the little reiryoku she had send into him to give him back some strength, it still took them half an hour to reach the fourth division. The reiryoku had been nowhere near enough for Gimmjow, and Unohana couldn’t give him any more without breaking some rules. Well, more than she was already breaking right now.

They walked into a room, and as soon as they were inside Grimmjow stumbled to the side of Ichigo’s bed with worry clearly visible in his eyes.

“Why hasn’t he woken up yet?” he asked as he looked at the lieutenant with a panicked look.

“I have already restored some of his reiryoku. But as soon as I start putting reiryoku in his body the child absorbs a great part of it and it destabilizes it’s reiatsu.”

“Is there nothing you can do?”

“Well…. I have a theory. I’m guessing that if we restore your reiryoku as much as we can that you should be able to restore his. I don’t think the child’s reiatsu will destabilize when we do it like that because you are the father.”

“Won’t that take too long?” The ex-arrancar asked exasperated. “Isn’t there any other way?”

Now Unohana was the one to answer his desperate question. “There is another way. But it will put a great deal of stress onto your body to do it because you haven’t recovered your own reiryoku yet.”

“I don’t care. Let’s just do it that way. I can heal and restore my reiryoku after that. After Ichigo is okay.”

Unohana gazed at him with a soft smile before she nodded and went to sit next to Grimmjow. “Okay then. Put your hand over Ichigo’s heart. There’s a spirit center there” She waited until he did as he was told and then put her own hand over his heart. “Now, I’m going to send some reiatsu through your spirit center, and you send some into Kurosaki-kun. Okay?”

Grimmjow nodded and gasped when he felt a burning sensation in his chest as Unohana started sending some reiatsu into him. But he ignored it and did as he was told, keeping it up for more than an hour until he asked her to stop for a few minutes. The pain in his chest was becoming unbearable and he decided to tell her. She was a doctor after all. (and might very well kill him for not telling her such (probably vital) information)

She nodded at his request and nodded towards Isane to check up on Ichigo before turning back to Grimmjow and telling him to lay on his back so she could do the same to him.

He once again did as he was told and felt her reiatsu searching his body.

“We’re going to have to stop this for today.” She stated. “You’re spirit center will not be able to take a lot more without collapsing. They have to do a lot of work converting the reiatsu I’m giving you into your own reiryoku” She turned to Isane who nodded. “Kurosaki-kun seems to be getting better already. The child stopped absorbing so much reiatsu and is out of danger. Kurosaki should be waking somewhere tomorrow. But we are going to have to see if we need to do this again because he is not really stable yet.”

“Alright.” Grimmjow said, soft smile on his lips. Ichigo was going to be alright! That’s all that mattered to him right now. Everything else could wait.

Unohana watched him with a hint of amusement before standing up. “We’ll be leaving them. The door will be locked but everything you need is in here. Also, this is a room specially made for reiatsu recovery so you should be feeling better tomorrow as well. We’ll come by to check up on you and do another session if we need to.”

Grimmjow once again nodded and sat down on the other bed in the room, waiting until they were outside before standing up again and walking towards Ichigo’s bed, laying down next to his lover. He whispered reassurances in the man’s ear, telling him that they were going to be alright. All of them; the child as well. He also told his younger lover that he was looking forward to having another kid running around and that they wouldn’t have to worry about Katherine being jealous over her little sibling. She was going to be the perfect big sister.

He kept talking until he felt sleep overcome him like a thief sneaking inside of a house unnoticed. And before he knew it he was fast asleep, dreams of their possible future keeping him busy throughout the night.

XXXXX


	10. Recovery

When Unohana walked into the hospital room the next morning the view she was met with warmed her heart. Grimmjow was lying in the same bed as the ex-substitute-shinigami, arms wrapped around his waist and holding him close to his chest. She could see their reiatsu mingle, which surprised her because such a thing barely happened. It meant that they searched each other even while being asleep.

She walked over to them and gently touched Grimmjow’s shoulder, trying her best not to scare him, but he jumped at the touch anyway, staring at her with wide, surprised (and very scared) eyes.

“Ah. Sorry.” She said, smiling softly. “But I came to check up on both of you and proceed with the treatment if needed.”

The ex-arrancar nodded and stood up from the bed, sitting in the chair next to while she bent over his lover, sending her reaitsu into the still unmoving body.

“I also have some questions to ask you.” She stated, glancing at the man in the chair next to hair, waiting until he nodded before asking her question.

“While I know that Kurosaki-san is still in his human body –thought it is altered- I am wondering why you seem to be in soul form and why your hair is black even in soul form.”

The man stared at her and sighed deeply, showing her a necklace he was wearing. “This necklace is actually what forms my gigai. As long as I am in the living world it forms a gigai around me, and the moment I step into a garganta of senkaimon the gigai just disintegrates and reforms as the necklace. It’s a new technique Urahara san was working on and I am one of his test subjects for it, together with some other arrancar. “

The fourth division taichou nodded and turned around as she was done checking up on Ichigo. She nodded her head towards Grimmjow’s bed and he got the hint, walking over there and laying down, letting her check up on him as well.

“Another question. Seeing as Ichigo is now almost 5 weeks pregnant, I was wondering if you knew when and how it happened. I know that it can only happen while in soul form, but since Ichigo is no longer a shinigami, thus no longer able to just get out of his body, I am wondering how this could possibly happen.”

Grimmjow huffed. “I’d like to know as well. We did … uhm.. make love while I was in spirit form somewhere last month because Urahara had to check up on my gigai, but we used protection then, even with the changes being so slim because he couldn’t go into soul form we decided to just be sure.”

She nodded. “What kind of protection did you use?”

“Just a simple condom. But I guess that didn’t really do all that much protecting in the end.”

Unohana smiled at him and shook his head. “Human contraception doesn’t work with shinigami because we don’t work that way. With us shinigami the beta’s have reiatsu chambers, I’m guessing it’s the same with Hollows, but to get pregnant the chamber doesn’t need the semen, it pulls the reiatsu and genetic material out of it and that forms the child.”

She stood up again as she was done checking up on him. “But let’s just say that it is very rare for shinigami to get pregnant. The only cases I’ve known about are either with the visored of with the noble clans where the chambers are pushed into the abdomen.”

Grimmjow nodded at that and sat back up, following her back to Ichigo’s side and sitting down onto the chair.

“So how is he?” he asked with a nod towards his lover. “Is he going to be alright?”

“I do believe so. We’ll be doing the treatment again for about an hour, just to be sure, and after that I want you both to rest. You’ll be needing it. Meanwhile I’ll have to go to the Soutaichou for an explanation as to why I removed you from your cells against all standing regulations.”

“I’m betting he’s not to pleased about that.” The ex-espade scoffed dryly, making the woman smile in return.

“It’s like you know him really well Grimmjow-san.” She said, making him scoff again.

“Yeah well, ‘Thomas’ taught me well.”

XXXXXX

Ichigo’s eyes blinked open as he felt somebody shift in the bed beside him. Wait… what? Bed? He turned away from the wall he was facing and gazed at the room, noticing the hospital-like look and immediately knowing that he was in the fourth division. He sighed deeply in relief. Thank god that Unohana could be such a persistent person when it came to somebody’s health.

He turned around in the arms of his lover, staring at the man’s sleeping face before kissing him softly and waking the man up.

“Grimmjow.” He mumbled softly, waiting until the man opened his eyes. A look of surprise and then immense relief flashed through those teal orbs before the man hugged him tightly, mumbling ‘thank god’s and ‘I’m so glad you’re alright’s.

He smiled at his lover and kissed his lips again before asking him what happened.

Grimmjow immediately flushed at the question, sitting up slowly and staring at the younger man.

“Well. You collapsed due to reiryoku depletion and I was close to doing the same so Unohana had us transferred to this room, which is locked by the way, and well…. We found out something else as well.”

He turned slightly more red as he remembered talking to Unohana about their sex life to find out exactly how Ichigo could’ve gotten pregnant twice, both times while no longer being a shinigami.

“And what can that possibly be that it makes you as red as Renji’s hair?”

“… You are pregnant again.”

“…. I’m WHAT!? Grimmjow! That’s not something to joke about!”

“I’m not joking. Your almost 5 weeks along, this time you’re going through a shinigami pregnancy and I had to discuss our whole sex life with Unohana to be able to find out why you could’ve gotten pregnant twice already while in your HUMAN body!”

The moments Ichigo heard that last sentence his face flushed bright red, putting even Renji’s already mentioned hair to shame.

“You’re really serious?” He asked, eyes still wide, not even noticing that the door was being unlocked and opened.

“I’m dead-serious.” The ex-arrancar stated softly. “You are pregnant again, and due in a little over 15 weeks, and I have absolutely no idea how it happened again.”

A loud happy squeal suddenly sounded from behind them, making them flinch in surprise. They could recognize that squeal anytime.

They turned around quickly, seeing Katherine, Ukitake, Shunsui, his sisters and his father standing in the doorway.

“Katherine!” Ichigo’s face immediately brightened as he opened his arms and waited for her to jump on the bed. And she didn’t make him wait for long as she jumped onto the bed and hugged him tightly. “I’m going to be a big sister!” She squealed out right next to the once orange haired male’s ear, making him wince.

“Katherine. Please. Not so loud.” Grimmjow said softly patting her head lovingly before turning to the people still standing in the doorway.

“You can come inside you know. I really won’t hurt you. I have not a single reason to do so.”

He watched as they hesitated for a few seconds before they finally walked inside and came to stand around the bed.

“I see you are feeling better!” Isshin said in his happy-go-lucky-voice as he tightly hugged the two men.

“Dad! I can’t breathe!” Ichigo whimpered at the tight hug making Isshin back away immediately with a pout on his lips, making Ichigo sigh deeply.

“I just recovered from nearly dying.” He stated softly. “Just, don’t be so rough okay. I’m no longer used to that!”

The man nodded hastily before grinning at his granddaughter.

“By the way Ichigo.” His voice suddenly sounded a lot more mature. “She’s really beautiful. She looks just like my Masaki.”

Both the parents flushed brightly as they were still hugging Katherine tightly, not wanting to let go.

“She’s real brave you know.” Came the sudden voice from Ukitake-taichou- whom they had forgotten was there- making them look at the man and his partner.

“I know.” Ichigo mumbled as he kissed his daughter on the forehead again before Grimmjow pulled her on his lap.

“But she’s going to have to be brave for a little longer because this isn’t over yet.” The ex-espada said as he put his chin on the top of her head.

“I know daddy. I’ll be brave because you need me!”

“Damn right we do.” Ichigo chuckled at his daughter’s words. Kyorako-taichou and his dad were already rubbing off on her and he didn’t know if he should be happy or worried about that. But in the end he decided to go with the first option, liking the fact that they got along so well.

He patted her head and grabbed Grimmjow’s hand softly.

He could only hope that things were going to be all right, because even thought they were no longer in the cell right now, and things seemed to be going a lot better; they knew that it could change for the worst in only a matter of seconds. And they hoped that that moment was going to stay away forever, or at least as long as possible.

 


	11. Decision time

 “Ichigo Kurosaki.” A gruff voice sounded from the door, making Ichigo –who was sitting in Grimmjow’s embrace- look up at the direction of said voice. A decision he almost immediately regretted doing because there, in that doorway, was a not very pleased looking head captain of the Gotei 13.

He crawled out of Grimmjow’s embrace, knowing that sitting in his lover’s arms right now was in no way the best possible choice.

“Yamamoto-soutaichou.” He looked straight into the other man’s face, showing that he was confident in his relationship even when his voice had sounded so silent, barely there, and weak.

Grimmjow glanced from his lover to the old man in the doorway. He knew who that was of course. That man had killed Barragan, ex-king of Hueco Mundo and he was the strongest man in the whole of seireitei. He sat up and went to sit next to his lover, not caring that Ichigo had just crawled away from him, and grabbed the shinigami’s hand tightly, feeling just how sweaty both their palms had suddenly become.

“We have reached a decision, but seeing as how Unohana-taichou stood on it that the both of you were still not fit to leave this room I decided to bring you the news myself.”

If there had been a sentence in the world that could’ve scared Ichigo even more he would’ve liked to hear it right now just to get away from this rotten feeling of not only his own fate, but that of his lover and child as well, laying in the hands of the old man he’d went against for quite a few times.

“First of all we have not gotten to a definitive decision yet. The decision made right now resolves around the fact that we are going to keep the both of you in the seireitei, under surveillance, for the next two weeks. You are to stay in the Kuchiki Mansion with thanks to Abarai-fukutaichou  who apparently persuaded Kuchiki-taichou.”

Grimmjow and Ichigo stared at each other, not sure what to do about this. Renji made sure they could stay in the Kuchiki Mansion… what? How even?

And apparently the confusion was written very clearly on their faces because the next sentence that came out of the soutaichou’s mouth cleared up a lot of things. “Love can make even the hearts most hidden away do strange things, don’t you think?”

At this their eyes widened dearly, much to the soutaichou’s secret amusement.  “Renji and Byakuya are in a relationship.” … “Somehow that creeps me out.” Ichigo mumbled softly before Grimmjow nodded in agreement.

“Well. That was all. As soon as Unohana-taichou gives the clearance Sui-Feng-Taichou will come to transfer you to your rooms at the Kuchiki Mansion. We’ve already taken care of your lives in the real world. We told that neighbor lady that you have both moved to japan because of some family problems and we’ve taken care of the explanation of your sudden leave from work and school in the same way as well.”

The ex-substitute shinigami nodded and waited for the old man to leave before turning to Grimmjow and hugging him tightly. He couldn’t believe that they were really getting away with this. It had looked like the head captain was not at all pleased with his decision, so where the f’ did it come from?

Well, that was something they found out only a few hours later when people were allowed to start visiting where before only his friends from the real world and family had been allowed to come by.

It was actually Renji who had told them about it with an enormous grin on his face.

“- yeah so the soutaichou really had no other choice. It was only him, the central 46 and Sui Feng Taichou who were pro your execution, all the others, except for a few who had decided they wanted nothing to do with this, were against it and threatened to lay down their work if they decided to execute you.  He was about to have 9 divisions who would stop doing their work when he told them his new plan.”

“9 divisions?” That was a fact that had quite clearly shocked the couple. “Which 9 divisions?”

“the 3rd, 4th. 5th. 6th, mostly thanks to me because Byakuya wanted nothing to do with it, 8th, 9th, even the 10th but I’m guessing that has a lot to do with Rangiku begging Hitsugaya-taichou and promising to do 1 month of paperwork, then the 11th and the 13th. You even had some clans on your side. But that’s more Byakuya’s thing which I don’t know anything about.. so yeah.”

“Could you tell them all how extremely grateful we are?”

Now you would’ve expected to hear that coming from Ichigo, at least that was what Renji had expected, but instead it had been Grimmjow who had asked him that question and Ichigo who had just nodded in agreement.

Somehow that made him slightly uncomfortable.

“Uhm… sure?”

“Thanks.”

An awkward silence filled the room before the door suddenly burst open and in stormed about everybody he knew from the eleventh division, Kenpachi at front.

“Ishigo.” Came the voice from the little pink haired lieutenant. “Welcome back.”

“Uhm… thank you…”

Oh yes, he knew what was coming next, and as if fate didn’t want to disappoint him the next question came only seconds after a shudder made it’s way over his back.

“After the surveillance you can fight Ken-chan again right?” She cheerfully yapped at him, making him wince.

“uhm… I guess that will depend on the definitive decision? I’m not even a shinigami anymore.”  He was really not looking forward to having to fight with that giant man again. Definitely not without any of his powers.

Grimmjow stared at his lover’s uncomfortable look, something he’d seen quite a lot lately and he’d rather not have that look on the other man’s face. So with a smirk on his face he turned to the big man.

“How about this. Instead of fighting Ichigo since he’s powerless right now, you fight me when it’s over. I love sparring and it has been really long. I also beat Ichigo once so you don’t have to worry about me not being strong enough.”

“Grimmjow.” Came the embarrassed squeal from the younger man in his arms. He really didn’t like to be reminded about that, but he was going to have to live with it if he wanted to escape fighting with the captain from the eleventh division.

“Fine with me.” The muscled man said with that shit-eating grin on his face. He could barely wait!

“You’re going to have to wait until after the surveillance as well thought. Wouldn’t want that old man to get the wrong idea and kill me off before we can even thinking about sparring.”

“Right. I’ll wait then. But we’ll be keeping you to that promise.” This time it was Ikakku who responded with a grin playing on his lips.

And with that they all left, the captain without a word, Yumichika with a wink and Ikaku with a grin almost as wide as his captain’s. All the other just waved at them and then followed after the enormous man.

“Just… Don’t get killed please? You’re no longer the same now, don’t forget that.”

“I won’t get killed. I’m going to use these two weeks to train my ass off.”

Ichigo sighed deeply and snuggled even closer into his lover’s arms. 

How did he even expect anything else?

 


	12. Family

Ichigo sighed deeply as he stared at his once again blue haired lover training with Renji. Somehow, due to a reason unknown to Ichigo, the two had become really close friends and ended up sparring and training almost daily. With some help from Byakuya on his kidou.

The ex-shinigami had absolutely no idea why Byakuya was even doing that, but he could easily guess that Renji had something to do with it and that was about all he wanted to know. Because if someone was going to give him any details about how that red haired baboon bribed the noble into helping out, he was probably going to be sick. (more than he already constantly was)

Another sigh escaped his lips as he leaned his head back against the wall. He wished he could train as well, but he no longer had any shinigami powers and was still in his human body, although it was altered, so he couldn’t.

And the only reason he didn’t just vanish with all these strong reiatsu around him was because that freak from the 12th division had been forced to make something to form a protective shield around him, reducing the reiatsu until they no longer formed a threat to him.

In the beginning he’d been reluctant to wear it of course, and most of the captain’s had agreed with his reluctance, so Kurotsuchi had to wear it himself for a week first, just to prove that the bracelet-like thing wouldn’t do anything weird to their favorite ex-substitute shinigami.

He looked back up to his lover, seeing him pinning Renji to the floor with a loud yell of ‘YES I WON!’ making the teen chuckle softly even as Byakuya pulled the bluehaired male of his lover and disappeared with the redhead into his personal rooms to heal his wounds and do whatever thing Ichigo really didn’t want to know about. Or think about really.

Grimmjow smirked at Ichigo as soon as he was released. He ran up to his little berry and dropped himself next to him before hugging him.

“You’ve got that longing look on your face again. Want me that much?”

The younger one immediately scowled at that, sending Grimmjow into a fit of laughter. His lover was so easy to rile.

“You watch your mouth or you’re going to be ‘kept dry’ for a month.”

And that of course immediately shut the ex-arrancar up. “Sorry.” He mumbled against the orange haired man’s ear. “You know I love you.”

“Yes I know.”

A moment of silence fell over them.

“So… How are you and our little one?”

Ichigo’s eyes immediately lit up. “We’re both fine. He or she is doing wonderful for a 7 week old baby.” He touched his slightly bulging stomach and smiled at his lover.

The only thing left in their path to happiness was the final decision of the Gotei thirteen next week. They’d already gone through the first week of surveillance without any real big problems. The only real problem that had occurred was when Renji and Grimmjow had first started sparring. It had reached Sui-Feng’s ears and she had immediately gone to the soutaichou with a request for imprisonment.

In the end the soutaichou had to give in to Renji thought as Byakuya promised to keep an eye on them and swore that the sparring was only for training Grimmjow and teaching him the rules of fighting as a shinigami, which the soutaichou had to be reminded of he was now.

After that Sui-Feng had stuck around for the rest of the first week trying to find anything that could send all of them to prison for at least a little while. But the only thing she’d managed –much to both parent’s annoyance- was making sure that they didn’t have Katherine with them as long as possible. She was still staying with Ukitake-taichou due to the ‘violent environment’ at the Kuchiki-estate during their stay.

“I can barely wait for our little one.” Grimmjow whispered softly after another few minutes of silence. “And to have Kat with us again.” He snuggled closer to the younger man, holding him as close as possible while his own hand rested on top of the younger one’s, feeling the new reiatsu thrum under their joined hands.

“Talking about Kat.” Ichigo whispered with a smile. “Isn’t she coming to visit today?”

“Yes. Yes she is.”

The blueberry had barely finished his sentence when a reluctant looking servant walked up to them with the news that they had visitors. “Talking about our little wonder. I’m guessing that’d be her”

Ichigo nodded with a smile playing gently on his cherry pink lips, opening his arms wide as the little girl ran towards them like she was being chased by a gang of hollows. She could’ve easily been as fast as Ichigo had he been in his Bankai.

The little girl ran into his arms, almost knocking him over if it weren’t for the tree behind his back.

“Hi there.” He said with genuine big smile, hugging his daughter tightly. It had been too long since he’d last seen her. 8 days, since the third day after they started staying in the Kuchiki Mansion. And Sui Feng was the only one to blame for that.

God he had missed her so much.

With the same smile adorning his lips he looked up at the two men walking toward the little family.

“Thank you so much Ukitake-taichou. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”

“No problem.” Shunsui replied instead of his white haired lover. “Everything to annoy Sui Feng for a little bit.”

Grimmjow released a low rumbling chuckle at that. He couldn’t agree more. Even if they would probably get in at least some trouble for this.

“Oh don’t worry by the way.” Ukitake decided to fill in the parents where the captain of the eight division hadn’t. “We’ll take the blame if she decides to nag about it. We’ll just tell him that we don’t agree with keeping a child away from her parents.”

Ichigo nodded gratefully to the couple, still not letting go of his daughter.

“Mommy. You’re kinda choking me.”

Okay, so he lessened the force of his embrace a little bit, wouldn’t want his little girl to die because he choked her right? And having Grimmjow whine at him for a few minutes that he wanted to hug Kat as well he kissed her on her forehead and completely let her go, watching as she jumped into her father’s embrace.

And that’s what they did for the rest of the day, just sitting there, hugging and talking about the most random things that came to mind. It was all that they needed right now. To just be able to sit there as a family and enjoy the day.

It couldn’t get any better.

 


	13. Final Decision

The rest of the week past by quickly and before Ichigo could even comprehend what was happening, everybody he knew from the eleventh division was standing in front of him, asking him where Grimmjow was so Kenpachi and maybe even a few of the others could fight him.

“Where’s bluekitty?”  The little pink haired girl on top of the man’s shoulder asked with a smile. “We came to fight him. He didn”t get scared did he?”

The ex-substitute-shinigami laughed softly at her, holding his  stomach as it hurt.

“Oh he isn’t scared, you can take that from me. He’s just hasn’t woken up yet.”

The giant muscled man from the eleventh glanced past him towards a door that just opened, revealing a head full of disheveled blue locks.

“I’m up, I’m up. Just gimme a minute to get ready.”

XXXX

Half an hour later both Ichigo and Grimmjoaw were standing in front of  the three men of the eleventh division; Kenpachi, Ikaku and Yumichika, while Yachiru had already found her way into some tree to view the fight.

Ichigo decided to follow her example and crawled inside the one next to hers. He knew perfectly well how violent both his lover and the captain could both get and he’d rather be somewhere far away. But then he wouldn’t be able to ‘support’ the bluehaired man; not like he needed it. So he just decided to go as high as possible on the farthest corner from the training grounds.

“You ready?” he heard the tallest of the two growl out in a low voice.

“Always.”

The orange haired teen groaned. Grimmjow was way too confident about this. The man really has no idea what he’s up to, has he?

Only seconds later their swords clashed for the first time, sending both males backwards again at the power of it. They grinned at each other and went at it again; and again, and again, but every time on of them attacked the other would easily dodge or block the stroke and go in for the attack himself.

And that went on for about 2 hours before apparantly Grimmjow had enough of it and decided to go into his’ ressorection’ (but not really, he just still calls it that) to end it.

The captain of the eleventh devision watched with interest ast the  ex-espada took his armored form and leaped in the ear, ready for another attack.

Swords clashed once again as the bulky man went into defence, not even being able to block the attack with all the power that Grimmjow put behind the attack. Ichigo could hear the sound of a sword cracking, and the widening smirk on Grimmjow’s face easily gave away which sword it was.

Kenpachi pushed the other man off him, watching the panther with a careful eye.

“You’re better at this than I would’ve thought.” He growled out in that enormously low voice of his.

The bluehaired man scoffed at this. “Of course I am. I had to survive in Hueco Mundo. Your shinigami lifes are way too easy. You don’t have a cruel death lurking behind every rock.”

Ichigo smirked at that and leaped out of his tree, going to stand next to the ex-espada. “You should remember you’re a shinigami yourself now thought.”

Grimmjow turned towards him with a twitching eyebrow. “Right. I forgot.” He made a sour face and turned back to the other man growling lowly to gather his attention. Which was when he noticed that Yachiru had once again climbed up onto his back.

They waved at him and soon after they were suddenly gone, being followed by the other –grumbling- members of the eleventh division.

“Well finally alone again. Want to go pester our host for a little bit?”

The orange haired man rolled his eyes and followed his lover back into the house. “We’re not going to pester Byakuya Grimmjow. We’re still under house arrest until at least 6 PM this evening. And I’d rather not piss him off right now seeing as how he is going to be the one to bring us the old man’s decision.

XXX  


Time passed quickly after that –because of obvious reasons-  and before Ichigo even came to aknowledging time again, there was a knock on the door with Byakuya’s voice sounding soon after.

He lifted his head off of Grimmjow’s shoulder, wrapped himself in a plain night yukata and went to open the door to the host of the house.

Byakuya didn’t even blink at the barely clothed state he found Ichigo in and just went inside the room, refraining from rolling his eyes at the still very naked Grimmjow staring back at him.

“I have news about the decision made by the gotei 13 captains and the central 46.”

This, of course, immediately caught Ichigo’s attention, making him freeze as he was handig his lover something to wear.

The bleuhaired man grabbed the cloth hovering near his head and pulled his pregnant mate in his lap, softly kneeding his shoulders as he nodded his head to the sixth division captain as if to tell him they were ready for the news; good or bad.

Byakuya was barely able to surpress his smile at that gentle gesture and sat down in front of the couple.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to kep you waiting any longer so I’ll just say the most imortant things. First of all, the execution is no longer accepted, on the contrary actually, Grimmjow is to be enstated into the eleventh division as a seated officer while right now the first orders to start building a house on the outskirts of the seireitei for your little family to live in.”

“And what about Katherine? What about her education? Her teachers will get suspicious if she just suddenly dissapeared.”

“We also talked about that and we decided that she will be put in what Ishida-kun described as distance-education. He will tutor her and she will do exams and tests to check up on her evolution.”

“Alright.... I guess I can live with that. I could also help along with some of the tutoring.”

“But that was not all Kurosaki-kun. We also wish to start teaching her about the laws and ways  of the soul society as well as keep track about her potential to become a shinigami, maybe even start simple training.”

 

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

 “No.”

“Kurosaki-kun.”

“No. she’s too young. I don’t want her learning about violence and fighting at this young age already. It can’t possibly do her any good.”

“Ichigo.” Grimmjow laid a gently hand down on the orange haired man’s shoulder, trying to ground the raising temper. “Let’s listen to the specifics first alright? Maybe it’s not actually that bad? I mean. I grew up with violence? ”

“... fine. But your last argument isn’t really helping. At all.”

Ichigo released a heavy sigh and signed to Byakuya to carry on. But he did so reluctantly.

“The training we would start her on would actually be healing kudos, creating hell butterflies, all the basics. Later, when she’s old enough we’ll let her get to know the other elements and then she can decide which direction she wants to take. That is the way we teach all noble children. It’s the way I was thought as well.“

Silence fell into the room, the two lovers staring at each other in complementation.  Grimmjow was the first to speak after a few minutes of silent communication.

“That actually sounds like a very good idea.”

It still took an hour after that to convince Ichigo.

XXXXXXX

Epilogue:

Ichigo leaned against the tree, staring at the pond where his two children were playing tag.  5 years had passed since Elizabeth was born and back then he could never have imagined his life to become like this.

This peaceful. This quiet.

He watched as Elizabeth chased Katherine around the garden, the oldest one running just fast enough that her black haired sibling couldn’t catch her, but slow enough that she didn’t lose interest in trying to do so.

Just like they both thought. Kat was the best big sister they could have imagined her being. Of course, sometimes, they fought about silly things, for example: Last week Beth’s favourite  teddy bear had disappeared and when they looked for it they found it in Katherine’s bed. A fight broke out because Elizabeth thought Kat had stolen it. But in the end they remembered that she’d crawled into her sister’s bed to hide for the storm and had forgotten Bear there.

In the end she let her big sister keep her teddy for one night as an apology.

Suddenly Ichigo found his eleven year old daughter in his lap, screaming in his face that daddy was finally home.  Which normally wasn’t that big of a deal. But Grimmjow had been away for a few weeks. Send on a mission to Huecco Mundo to finally finalize the treaty they had been building up to for years.

A treaty that stated that there would be no attacks unless they were justified. This meant nothing more than the fact that the shinigami would only attack the hollows attacking souls, and the arrancar would not attack humans.

Simple as that.

But it had still taken around five years for it all to be finalized because there were some very stubborn people on both sides.

He tried to stand up, which wasn’t actually that easy because, first of all, he had an eleven year old girl clinging to his neck, and second of all, being about halfway pregnant with his third child, standing up wasn’t an easy task on itself.

Well: third AND fourth child actually because lady faith had decided to put twins in his now overly large stomach.

His life. Really.

He waddled his way over to the gate where his blue-haired (now-) husband was waiting for him with Elizabeth already in his arms. A bright smile played on the man’s lips as he walked closer to his mate. The last time he saw him he wasn’t even showing yet and now he looked like he had swallowed a very big watermelon.

Or maybe two of them.

Grimmjow pulled him as close as he could, kissing him passionately on the lips. 

“God I missed you.”

“I thought you’d be too distracted to miss me.”

“distracted with what?”

“your friends. Obviously. You haven’t seen then in at least 5 years.”

“yeah…. Starrk’s been an absolute je- meanie to me about that.”

Ichigo smirked at the quick correction the ex-arrancar made. Wouldn’t want to actually cuss in front of his 5 year old daughter now would he?  Ichigo wouldn’t let him live it down.

He’d done that once with Katherine and he had to hear it for months because she had tried repeating the word at school.

You can probably guess that her teachers weren’t exactly too pleased about that.

Nor Ichigo.

XXXX

Weeks later they welcomed their two lovely sons. The first one named Maxim, (because Grimmjow had heard that name somewhere and it had stuck with him) who they just called ‘max for short’, and Elliot, A name Ichigo’s youngest sister suggested after hearing it somewhere on television. It was the name of some actor or character she liked and Ichigo had thought it to have a nice ring to it.

Though after their birth they decided, that 4 children, running around in the house, was more than enough for the moment. And if Grimmjow dared knock him up again, some very bad things were going to happen.

He should probably thank Unohana for the birth control pills, based on those for human girls, so he doesn’t have to worry about the possibilities Ichigo could probably come up with.

Thought the younger man took great pleasure in telling him all the things he could do to him.

 


End file.
